Oh Happy Day! reclaimed wood art

OH it's been a good morning.
Two days ago I saw this post on Life as a Thrifter.
And immediately set out to make my own.
Like, I walked from the computer to the backyard to dig wood out from under my shed, immediately.

It turned out more magnificent than I hoped.

It's happy and sunny and I can't help but sing the song when I see it.

It's old and splintered and worn and sanded and loaded with character.

Making your own is more simple than you think.
You just need some old wood, nails, hammer and a hand saw.

I cut the front pieces to the same length as each other, you can make yours as big and as small as you want. Mine is a monster...4 1/2ft by almost 3ft. Just build it to the size you want.

Here's how I assembled it with my master craftsman skills. I used three shorter boards to brace it and nailed two nails in each horizontal board through each vertical board. Then I flipped it over and put a single nail through each horizontal board into the vertical ones. I was clearly not going for perfection.

Then, I drew my design. I searched the house for the just right sized circle and settled on a laundry basket to trace...then used a yard stick to draw the rays.
Paint colors are by valspar: egg yolk, morning sunrise, elizabethan yellow and turquoise tint.

Then I escaped reality and colored each section in randomly.
I did not worry about perfect. I wanted a worn beachy look.

Ahh...happiness.

Next up, the lettering. The font I used was free from Dafont.com and it is called ARB 85 Posterscript

To make my stencil, I used my standard method. I created the words in Pages and printed them out on card stock in light grey to save ink.

I cut them out and used a pencil to trace them. Then filled them in with the turquoise.

Then I stood back and went in to let it dry. I turned my attention to getting some work done at the computer. It started to rain. I said out loud to Doug "Oh it's raining hard"....then it hit me "OH IT'S RAINING!!!! HELP ME!!!" I ran outside to save my love...and hauled that thing in...all 40-50 awkward pounds of it.

Once it dried from rain and paint I gave it a good sanding.

I went over the whole thing...revealing layers and wearing out the edges.

I could just look at it all day.

I've had several requests to make people one...well, I would have to sell my firstborn to ship it and really, it's not in the cards but I will make a print of it to add to the shop!?

Oh holy smokes do I have to do this! The only problem I foresee is not having enough wall space for all the cool things you are introducing me to . . . But walking in my house under my red "hey ya'll" makes me so happy, so I'll just have to come up with other spaces and new places to display the wonderfulness! Great job Crystal. You rock!

Love the art work Crystal! So cheerful! To save even more ink when printing your fonts to use as stencils try clicking on outline. This will outline the letter for you to cut without filling in the inside which saves loads of ink.

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